Download 10.2 The Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire
Three new civilizations based on religion emerged from the ruins of the Roman Empire:
Byzantium, Islam, and Latin Christendom. Though the Roman Empire in the west fell to the
German tribes, the eastern provinces survived because they were wealthier and more populous
and because they did not bear the brunt of barbarian invasions. Therefore, with a capital city at
Constantinople, the eastern remnant of the Roman Empire became a new entity. While its
inhabitants still called themselves Roman, Byzantium created a new culture that was for 1,000
years far more advanced than Christendom in Europe. The Byzantine Empire’s religion was
Christianity, its culture Greek, and its governing mechanisms Roman. At a time when few Latin
Christians could read or write, Byzantine scholars studied the literature, philosophy, science, and
law of ancient Greece and Rome. Constantinople was a magnificent walled city of schools,
libraries, open squares (forums), and bustling markets.
Over the centuries the two severed halves of the old Roman Empire grew apart culturally
and theologically. The popes in Rome resisted domination by the Byzantine emperors, and the
Byzantines would not accept the pope as head of their churches. Quarrels erupted over holy
days, the display of images (called icons) in worship, and the rights of the clergy. A final break
came in 1054, and ever since Roman Catholics and Eastern (Greek) Orthodox churches have
been split. Even though it would have been convenient to unify in the face of outside aggression
and the arrival of a whole new religion (Islam) on the scene, European Christians refused to
recognize the Byzantine emperors’ claims that they were the successors to the Roman emperors.
Furthermore, in Byzantium Greek was the language of religious and other intellectual discourse;
in Latin Christendom they used, well, Latin. Even Augustine had said he never learned Greek.
The Byzantine Empire played a crucial role in world history. We shall go back and trace
its history to its high point, and then we’ll mark its slow demise under great pressure from all
sides in the course of studying its opponents. As we begin, however, note that Byzantium did
stop Islam from spreading into Europe. Had Constantine not placed his namesake city in such a
critical geographical location, Arabs would likely have penetrated far into Eastern Europe and
found it unable to resist being made a part of the Muslim Empire. A Byzantine Emperor,
Justinian I, also rescued the broad legacy of Roman law which in its principles of reason and
justice became the foundation for much of today’s legal codes wherever the feet of Europeans
have trod. Byzantine culture inspired even Muslim scholars to preserve the philosophy, science,
mathematics, and literature of ancient Greece. When it came to conflict with barbarians,
Byzantium converted several Germanic and Slavic tribes to Orthodox Christianity and also
transmitted law, art, and other high ideas to what amounted to hordes of forest-dwellers, i.e.
Russians. Assailed on all sides by fellow Christians, Persians, Russians, Ottoman Turks, and
Arabs, the Byzantine Empire not only survived for a millennium but transmitted to all these
other rivals a measure of culture which otherwise would have been lost forever. Among other
ideas, Byzantium forged the concept of the Christian king, a powerful notion that would
eventually help Europe out of the Middle Ages toward the creation of modern nation-states.
Unfortunately, this idea would persist long after rulers dispensed with sincere Christianity and
merely became absolutists claiming the divine right to rule.
Now to the history of this cultural gemstone set in the crown of antiquity. “Byzantium”
was an old Greek polis of no significance through ancient times, but all that changed when
Constantine the Great renewed it in 324 as his capital city, Constantinople. He envisioned the
city as the new Rome from where he could keep an eye on the frontiers along the Danube and
Euphrates rivers, not to mention the Bosporus, the narrow channel into the trade routes of the
Black Sea. He hoped that this move would cause his city to become the focus of a new unity in
decrepit Rome, but not until over two hundred years later would a Byzantine emperor come even
close to making this vision a reality. In founding his new city, Constantine tapped into an ideal
within the Christian Scriptures of the New Jerusalem. Byzantine civilization was permeated with
a belief in divine favor and the resulting duty of vigilance. At its core was the interaction among
imperial capital, emperor, and church. The patterns formed built on Christian, Roman, and
Hellenistic foundations. Thus Byzantine civilization was imperial, Christian, and urban. By the
time Constantine died in 337, however, his city was only half finished.
His son, Constantius ruled as emperor of the east from 337-361, and his two brothers
were given the central and western portions of the Roman Empire. Civil war broke out among
the heirs of Constantine, but Constantius won. In celebration he gave Constantinople a senate on
the Roman model and a church, the first Church of St. Sophia, to serve as its cathedral. The
Christian church grew suspicious of Consantius, however, because he leaned near the end of his
life toward the Arian heresy, the series of beliefs that diminished if not removed the doctrine of
the full divinity of Christ. His cousin and successor, Julian, was not any better because he was
overtly pagan. He died, however, trying to play at being Alexander the Great while fighting the
Persians from his preferred capital city of Antioch. His successor was named Valens and also
operated out of Antioch. Valens was thus too focused on the frontier to stop an uprising of
Visigoths until it was too late. The Visigoths met Valens and his army at Adrianople in 378 and
killed the emperor in battle.
To the rescue came a man of whom you have heard before. None other than Theodosius
took the throne. Theodosius was a Spaniard, a devout Roman Catholic, and a good general. As
emperor he called the Constantinople Council where leaders of the church rejected the Arian
heresy once and for all. With this impetus Theodosius, as you have seen, then enacted the step
that made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Since Theodosius returned his
administration to Constantinople, that city became at once the new Rome and the New
Jerusalem. Theodosius ruled from Constantine’s city where Constantine had left a giant stone
sculptured head of himself. Theodosius took an obelisk from the temple at Karnak in Egypt and
moved it to the hippodrome of Constantinople. Upon this ancient monument Theodosius had
relief sculptures carved of himself and his family watching the games. Theodosius began
expansions of his growing capital which were completed by his grandson. In 412 the new line of
walls was built nearly a mile west of where Constantine the Great had left off.
Constantinople’s greatness lay not only in its walls, which still stand, but in its fixation
on relics that attracted huge crowds of pilgrims. Constantine’s own mother had started the
process. This woman, Helena, traveled the Holy Land and named sites of events recorded in the
New Testament. History cannot tell where these events happened, but Helena thought she could.
She is also reported as having found the true cross upon which Christ was crucified which
Byzantine armies brought back by force form Persia. That relic certainly drew crowds. Other
relics were stockpiled in Constantinople along with a plethora of images of saints and even of
Jesus decorating the city and its buildings with either frescoes or mosaics. The word byzantine
implies now a level of complexity in government or in art just for the sake of having complexity.
In this regard, your ideal notebook entries could be said to be byzantine.
The other great attraction to living in Constantinople was bread. In what was known as
the corn dole, each free citizen was given a ration of six loaves of bread a day. Emperors of
Byzantium kept their citizens happy and submissive in the time-honored practice of issuing
bread and circuses. The public buildings of the city were carefully planned masterpieces
arranged for grandeur and convenience. The city itself was built along the crest of a peninsula,
so as one moved about there were 117 stairways built to either ascend or descend. Apart from
this planning, however, private construction was haphazard and created a maze of alleys that led
off the city’s main streets. From the reign of Theodosius on, the city was also a center for
monastic life. Unlike the reclusive monks of say, Egypt, Byzantine monks did not wish to lead
lives separated from everyday life. Their goal instead was to keep alive a Christian ethic within
a secular society, mainly through acts of charity. Monasteries were often founded and/or funded
by rich and powerful families. Both social and economic power coupled with the power of piety
caused the monasteries to attain great influence in a Christian society. Leading monasteries at
times opposed both emperors and the highest bishops in Orthodox Church government known as
patriarchs. An interesting realization must be noted that while contemporary and modern
historians accused Christianity of bringing down the western Roman Empire, the religion
founded by Jesus of Nazareth most assuredly built up the eastern portion. By the middle of the
fifth century, Constantinople had emerged as a great city—in size and influence the last powerful
center of the Roman world.
One early attempt was made to unite the old Roman Empire under Byzantine leadership.
Leo I, who reigned from 457-74, sent an army to attack the Vandals in North Africa while
sending another army to Italy to place one of his men on the throne of the western empire. When
both campaigns failed, Constantinople turned its back on the west seemingly forever. The
emperor Athanasius (r. 491-518) is also noteworthy mainly because he left behind the largest
treasure of any Roman emperor, but he also held heretical views about the nature of Christ after a
Church Council had settled the issue. When wrangling with the patriarch of Constantinople led
to the emperor’s issuing a public theological statement that smacked of the heresy, rioting broke
out in the streets. Even though Athanasius was 80 years old, he summoned the courage to enter
the hippodrome in front of the assembled crowds and offered to resign the throne in the face of
such public displeasure. This act caused the crowd to embrace him again for his humility and
courage. As they began to disperse, Athanasius sent in his guard and massacred the crowd.
One might think at that point that all hell would break lose. Instead, a bear-trainer’s
daughter and a nearly illiterate soldier’s nephew rose up to stabilize the Byzantine Empire and to
become one of the most powerful husband/wife teams in history. No, I am not making this up.
Justin was the Latin-speaking soldier who could barely write his name. He had risen through the
army to be in command of palace security and when Athanasius died he was made emperor. He
had given his nephew, Justinian, the best education, and in return Justinian had bribed the circus
performers running the entertainments in the hippodrome to support his uncle for emperor. The
circus performers had immense influence over the crowd, and factions among them functioned as
rival political parties. Justinian then fell deeply in love with Theodora, the bear-trainer’s
daughter who turned out to be a genius at governing despite her reputation as a loose woman.
The two of them used their knowledge of the literal political circus (you thought our politics a
circus) to curb the circus factions’ power, their first step in restoring order to the capital of the
civilized world.
Justinian at first tried to make peace with European Germanic rulers, but when they
balked he simply sent over armies. These newer Roman armies swept all before them, Vandals
and Ostrogoths alike. With his masterful general, Belisarius, leading the way Justinian reclaimed
control of nearly all the Mediterranean Sea coastal territories. After restoring the largest territory
of what might conceivably be called the Roman empire, Belisarius returned in triumph to
Constantinople just in time to rescue his master. An event called the Nika Riots broke out in 532
as those darn circus people attempted to reassert their control. In doing so they had burned the
Cathedral of St. Sophia and destroyed much of the heart of the city. At one point, Justinian
despaired so that he told Theodora they should flee. She responded:
I hold that now if ever flight is inexpedient, even if it brings safety. When a man has
once been born into the light, it is inevitable that he should meet death. But for an
emperor to become a fugitive is a thing not to be endured. . . .If you wish to flee to safety,
Emperor, it can easily be done. . .there is the sea; here are the ships. But as for me, I hold
with the saying that royalty makes a fine winding-sheet [funeral garment].
With a woman like that, who needs an army? Well, it wasn’t Theodora but Belisarius
who led the palace guard into the hippodrome and slaughtered 30,000 people (in a city of only
250,000) once Justinian found the courage to give the command, said courage having been
borrowed from his wife. He also had his most prominent political opponents executed and
confiscated the property of other pesky senators. As a result of the Nika Riots, Justinian had a
Nero-like opportunity to build in the destroyed city center. When he came to power there had
hardly been a dome in sight, but by his death in 565, Constantinople’s skyline was dominated by
domed buildings, the most magnificent of which was the Church of St. Sophia, or the Hagia
Sophia. Mathematicians helped design the curious but impressive structure that was made by
placing a dome over a Roman-style basilica. One contemporary historian said that the dome
seemed, “somehow to hover in the air on no firm basis.”
Justinian’s greatest achievement, however, was his codification of Roman law. He
assembled a panel of lawyers and actually studied law himself as a part of his daily regimen of
light eating, frequent fasting, long work hours, and late-night studying. By 534 they had
compiled every Roman law they could get their hands on and then wrote the Digest and Institutes
which served as legal textbooks. While this task was presented as a return to the roots of
classical Roman law, Justinian reshaped the law to solidify the notion of a Christian monarch.
He personally drafted most of the legislation relating to the Church and religion in general. He
insisted that the emperor, by virtue of his office, was the law. An absolutist Christian monarch
defined law for his people and was appointed by God to do so just as the patriarch was appointed
to lead the Church. Outside the Hagia Sophia Justinian had erected an equestrian statue of
himself in which in his left hand he held an orb surmounted by a cross, the symbol of his
universal authority and its divine origin. When his armies entered Carthage and Rome he
seemed on the verge of restoring the entire Roman world. At the dedication of the new cathedral
in 537 he is said to have whispered, “Solomon, I have surpassed you.” Maybe that wasn’t a
good thing to have said. In 542 the bubonic plague struck Constantinople and at its height killed
5,000 people a day.
Still, Justinian devised ingenious ways to deal with the plague’s wrath. In 548, however,
Theodora died at 72 (reportedly still beautiful). Justinian took years to recover from this loss. In
that time the plague reoccurred at regular intervals. Doctors despaired saying they could do
nothing to stop the disease. People crowded into churches as their best hope of protection.
Justinian announced that God was punishing Constantinople for its sins and passed new laws
making homosexuality a crime punishable by death. He believed his empire was about to be
destroyed just as had Sodom and Gomorrah and for the same reason. After accomplishing
almost as much as any living man could, toward the end of his life he seemed unable to offer
more. He faced the fate of all rulers who outlived his popularity; his death in 565 was
considered a relief. He was replaced by his nephew, Justin, who tried to distance himself from
his uncle’s legacy by making new aggressive foreign policy statements that merely destroyed the
balance Justinian had created. With neighbors invading and citizens revolting, much of
Justinian’s work was undone. Successors to Justin stumbled on for another 100 years. One
emperor despaired so much under the threat of the advance of Islam as to abandon
Constantinople for the west in 662. After a visit to Rome, Constans (r. 641-68) actually settled
in Sicily. Constantinople refused to let his sons come to him at Sicily in disgust for Constans’s
having taken much of the army with him and abandoning the city of Constantine as indefensible.
One of his many enemies assassinated him in his bath.
His son, Constantine IV (r. 668-685), was left to face an attempt on the part of a caliph to
conquer Constantinople. A Muslim navy blockaded the city for seven years. The final assault in
678 failed, however, because of the Byzantine use of “Greek fire,” a substance similar to napalm.
Flammable materials mixed with petroleum were pumped under pressure and ignited through
tubes mounted on the front and back of ships. A refugee from Syria invented this new
mechanism which gave the Byzantine navy a distinct advantage in both offense and defense. As
the Muslim navy burned, the Muslim army tried to flee and the Byzantine army gave chase,
mauling the Muslims badly. The Muslim ships that survived to escape the fire were destroyed in
a storm. This complete defeat of an Islamic advance restored Constantinople and the Byzantine
Empire to renown. Rulers in the west and the Avars, a nomadic tribe from central Asia that had
been harassing the Byzantine frontier, sent envoys asking for peace. Christians in Lebanon
actually mounted a rebellion against the caliph which threatened his capital city of Damascus.
Constantinople then enjoyed several centuries of peace interspersed with periodic attacks that
proved it was still a desirable gem on the border between Europe and Asia. Here’s a hint about
its future—it is now known as Istanbul.